Scottsdale police have started investigating their city’s share of 6,554 reports of child abuse and neglect that were shelved without being investigated by state welfare workers.

Police officials said some of the city’s 143 overlooked reports, which were handed to them on Tuesday, Dec. 10, involved allegations of physical and sexual abuse.

The reports date back to March 2009.

Arizona’s Child Protective Services is under fire for failing to investigate thousands of child abuse and neglect reports across the state. Department of Economic Security director Clarence Carter, who oversees the agency, told a state oversight group in November that 6,000 of the allegations were “misclassifed” as “not investigated,” meaning staffers determined they did not warrant investigation. The number now stands at 6,554, state officials have said.

The revelation sparked outrage from lawmakers the public. In response, Gov. Jan Brewer formed an oversight panel called the Independent Child Care Advocates Examination Team (CARE) to ensure the cases were properly follows up with the goal of meeting every child and guardian who were subject of the reports.

Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane said he asked the City Manager Fritz Behring and Chief Alan Rodbell if it was possible for the police department to handle its own follow-up investigations to speed up the process.

“When it gets right down to it, beyond whatever problems there may be administratively or otherwise at CPS, we’re really just talking about making sure … the kids are being protected,” he said.

The answer from Behring and Rodbell was a resounding yes, he said.

Rodbell told him that the investigations could be conducted by a team of detectives, school-resource officers and civilian employees, and that any additional expense in overtime pay would be offset using funds seized under the federal RICO law, he said.

“I don’t know exactly what it (the amount available) is,” he said. “But we do feel comfortable that there’s sufficient funds there.”

Department spokesman Sgt. Mark Clark said that starting Tuesday, police started going through each case to determine if crimes were committed using a list from the CARE team showing each allegation,who reported it, where it occurred and who was responsible.

“It’s going to be, No. 1, to check and see if they’re still in the jurisdiction,” Clark said. “If we do find someone still in our jurisdiction, and the family is still there, then we will go out and actually talk to the kids and talk to the family and the detective will make a determination whether there is an issue or not.”

Clark said if a child and anyone who is the subject of a report is no longer living in the city, they will forward the findings to the independent CARE Team.

Greg McKay a Phoenix homicide detective who’s overseeing the Office of Child Welfare Investigations was not available for an interview, but issued a written statement.

"I am incredibly pleased to see the outpouring of support from our law enforcement partners,” he said. “Upon completion of their assessment, we hope to know the level of intervention and investigation required to protect each child.”

“We are trying to attest to the safety of thousands of children in a very short time span,” he said. “Every law enforcement agency supporting this effort has my heartfelt gratitude.”

Lane, a father of three and grandfather of four children, said he was outraged by the number of cases that CPS said it shelved without follow-up.

“We’re talking about cases that simply weren’t even looked at,” he said. “So anything could be out there – I mean the worst possible (cases). We’re not going to know until we look at them.”

Lane said he initially feared the number of reports in Scottsdale that weren’t investigated could have been even higher than 143.

“But I didn’t find any solace in that there was less than I thought,” he said.

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